Sliding-door construction.



PATENTED JAN. 15, 1907 A. R. CURTIS. SLIDING DOOR CONSTRUCTION.

Arrmoulofi FIRED mun 12,1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR R. CURTIS, OF GOLDEN, COLORADO.

SLIDING-DOOR CONSTRUCTION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 15, 1907.

Application filed June 12, 1905. Serial No. 264,759.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR R. CURTIS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Golden, inthe county of Jefferson and State of'Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sliding-Door Constructions; and I do declare'the following to i be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements in constructions where sliding doors are em ployed, as in bookcases or other cases or cabinets where it is desirable to slide the doors past each other when opening and closing the same. Heretofore, so far as I am aware, in constructions of this character each door 'm'oves in its own individualgroove or way at the top and bottom, and the doors which slide past each other are at all times in difier ent planes. Hence in the old construction each door constantly maintains the plane of its groove and has neither a rearward nor forward movement in the case. This construction gives an appearance that is not at all leasing to the eye and,,moreover, makes it difiicult to make all joints around the doors dust-tight. I

In the invention herein described the doors are so mounted and guided that when closed they are pressed firmly at all times by spring-pressure against the front faces of the grooves in which they'move and are thus held exactly in line-that is, exactly in the same plane with all joints tightly closed when all the doors are in the closed position.

This invention also includes means for allowing one door to pass another without injury to either, each being brought automatically to the front and into line withthe other doors when all are closed.

This invention also includes a novelfeature to facilitate the removal of doors, man ,ing it practicable to stack cases .fitted with such doors one above another, it still remaining possible to remove the doors ofany sec tion readily and without disturbing any of the others. J

Having briefly outlined my improved construction, together with its function, proceedto describe the same 1n detail, refermade to the accompanying drawings, m which is illustrated an embodiment thereof.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation' of a case provided with two doors shown in the closed position. -Fig. 2 is a sectional plan taken on line 2 2,. Fig. 1, showing the doors closed. Fig. 3 is a sectional plan 1 ence being moved partly past door B. Fig. 4 is a sectional plantaken on the same line showing door A moved over completely in front of door B. Fig. 5 is an enlarged section on line 3 3, Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is an enlarged section on the line 5 5, Fig. 1. Fig. 7,is a top view of a removable strip I shown in detail. When the parts areassembled,-a strip of this character is attached to the top'rail of ,each door. Fig. 8 is a sectional plan view corresponding to Fig. Z'arid showing the arrangement of parts when more than two doors are used.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all the views.

Let A designate one complete door and B the other, each consisting of an upper rail C, a bottom rail D, and end rails E.

I F is the upper guide slot, groove, or wa provided with the front guide R, and G the lower guide slot, groove, or way. Hindicates vertical slots located at each end of the case and against the outer walls of which the sides of the doors abut.

' I is a removable strip secured to the top rail C by means of screws J. I j Y K is a hole through the top guide of such size as to allow screws J to enter. L is a similar hole through the lower guide.

M is a spring of any suitable construction or a yielding guide pressing at all: times against the rear side of the rail D, the said spring'or yielding-guide having a slight projection N, whichengage's the back side or rear surface of the rail D below and the strip I above, .thus forming a yielding rear uide for the doors. As here. shown, these yie ding guides take the form of fiat springs curved, as shown, and having (1 at N;

a rounded en but any form which would press on the doors at a point N and allow of compression and extension backward and forward as the doors are pressed backward/ guides would answer the same purpose.

O. is a notch or recess in the side of strip I,

I will into which point N drops when the door is in 'ts extreme right or left position.

.taken on the sameline, showing door A or along their previous position.

' is moved fbacli to the left, the friction .50

. P a removable strip secured to the lower- 'front edge of rail D. i 7

Q is a roller or caster set in the bottom of rail D, and so located as to allow doors A-and 5 B to move freely at right angles to'the direcjust pass this edge and draw door A to the 15 right, at the same time removing all pressure from door B. The result of these movements is shown in Fig. 3. Further motion of door A to the right will terminate or result in the positions of the doors A and B shown in Fig. 4. It is evident that doors A and B may now be moved together to anypositionfrom ,extremezri ht to' extreme left, the curved shape of the yielding back guides M allowing the same to be accurately moved back asthe doors either singly or together are moved against them.

' To close the doors in the position shown in Fig. 4, door A is simply moved to the left back to its original position, when springguide M will push door B forward into its It is alsb evident that'l could start with the door B, moving it to the left and pass it through the same operation or manipulate it in the same manner.

While the above explains the principle of operation of my impro ed construction, t ere are certain details tha necessary for a successful operation of the same. These ma. be enumerated as follows: FirstFig. 3 s ows that as soon as the V door Abegins to pass in front of the door B the friction set up between these doorsQdue to the pressure from the yielding guide M, will jam the door B against the outer wall of groove H, and thefriction there set up will prevent the door B from moving back fre ly as door A is advanced. Again, when (100% tween doors A and B tends to drag door B back slightly, so that it will not move back into its original position exactly. These difficulties are both remedied by making the goove' H' -deeper at the back than at the out, as shown, so that as door B moves back it can have a slight motion to the right, preventing jamming, and on its return it 'can have a slight motion to. the left and still come to its original position.

Second. With a slight excess of friction between doorsA and B when door A is moved to the left to close it, the door B may follow a part or all of the way. is prevented by projection N of guide M resting in the notch 00f strip I at the top of the doors whenever a door is at its extreme position at the right tion the use and ave been found.

, movement of the door.-

Third. Since the doors come into actual contact with each other, mean's'must be provided to prevent the on each from'bea in injured and at the same time provide suitable bearing-surfaces to stand wear reor left. Point N is rounded, and notchO is ofsuch depth as to not wholly prevent the sultin r from themubbing. The removable a strip at'the top and strip P at the bottom of the doors may be made of any material to reduce friction and wear, and, as shown,

these strips aremade to project a certain distance beyond the door-rails, thus separating.

the rest of the l:Ioors and except alon t ese strips.

Fourth. is weight becomes so great that such pressure preventing contact:

ficient to overcome the friction on the, bottom of the doors, due to their weight, and thus prevent the return of the doors when a once pushed back. This diiliculty is overcome by lacing rollers or casters Q at the bottom 0 each door, the same being embedded i'n'the lower rail Din such a manner as to move forward and back.

the doors increase in. size the I as can be allowed in guides M will not be suf- 5 carrythe weight by rolling when the doo rs The method of removing the doors is as follows: vThe screws J are removed one atl'a 9 5 time through a hole K, formed in the upper wall of the case, releasing the strip I from the top rail C ofthe door. This allows the top of thus releasing the whole door. Should one set of doors be arranged above another, a hole L, exactly in line with hole K, is made at the the door to swing'out past the front guide R, v

bottom, as shown, thus allowing screwsfJ to i i be removed, the same as before.

While this description has been confined to the operation of two doors only,it is evident that any number of such doors may be similarlymounted in a single lineor plane provided yield' guides M are soshaped as to'al-low all thd oors to approach the same from either direction. Such a guide is shown at S in Fig. 8.

I claim 7 1. The combination of a case having undivided top-and bottom grooves or ways we Having thus describedmy invention, what f tending the entire length of the case, and a pairof interchangeab e sliding doors-whose" top and bottom rails respectively enter said grooves, the, door-space between the sides and the to. and bottom of the case being entirely ulio structed, and the doors being of means attached to the case and acting from the rear to automatically brin the .doors into the same'plane when proper y adjusted.

such width as to exactly fill said space, and

2. The combination of a case having'undivided top and bottom grooves or ways, and a pair of doors entering said ways, the latter bemg provided with a yielding reafguide and a commodate the two doors when occupying rigid front guide, the doors being interchangeable and each door being adapted when at either side of the case, to move to the front of the case and into the same plane with the other door underthe influence of tom of the case being entirely uno structed,

either door being adapted when on either side of the case to move automatically forwardly into position-flush with the other door, under theinfiuence of the yielding rearguide.

4. In a sliding-doorconstruction, the combination with the case having upper and lower undivided gro'oves or ways, a pair of doors whose top and bottom rails respectively engage the said ways, the door-space between the sides of the case and between the top and bottom thereof being entirely unobstructed, and the doors being interchangeable whereb either may perform its function at either side of the case, and yielding means attached to the caseand engaging the doors from the rear'to cause them' to assume antomatically the same plare in the ways when one has completely passed the other.

5; The combination of a case having undivided top and bottom ways provided with yielding guides fixedly attached to the case in the rear and rigid guides in front, and a pair of doors whose upper and lower edges respectively engage the said ways and are acted on the yielding guides to cause either door to assume automatically the same plane as the other door, as soon as it has stopped in an unobstructed door-space or opening, the two doors being interchangeable, and the door-space between-the sides of the case an the 'top and bottom thereof being entirel unobstructed.

6. A case provided with upper and lower undivided grooves of sufficient width to accommodate two doors one in front of, another, the vertical sides of the case adjacent the door-space being provided with grooves formin apart of the door-space and increasing in epth from front to rear, the depth in the rear making thedoor-space slightly wider than is necessary .to accommodate two doors, while the space in front is just sufiicient to acthe same plane, and yielding means engaging theidoors from the rear whereby they are caused to move to theirforward position, the side grooves causing the "doors to have a slight movement toward the vertical center of the case simultaneously with the forward movement imparted by the yieldin 7. A case provided with an 11:10 structed dbor-space in front and having undivided vertical side grooves or ways of sufficient width to accommodate a pair of doors, the said grooves increasin in depth from front to rear, interchangeabfe doors located in the door-space, and yielding means engaging'the doors from the rear and causing them to move forwardly whereby they are flush with each other, the SldG grooves 006 erating means; i

with the yielding means to cause t e doors to approach the vertical center. of the case simultaneously with their forward nidvement.

8. A case having grooved side abutments the grooves increasing in depth from front to rear, the said case having an uninterrupted door-space both within the space, and means located in the rear of the doors to cause them to'move forwardly to the flush position When-properly adjusted, the said grooves cooperating with between the grooved side abutments and between the top and bottom of the case, interchangeable doors locatedthe rearward-1y located actuating means, to

cause the doors to a ter of the case simu ward movement.

9. The combination with a case having top proach the vertical centaneously with their for and bottom undivided grooves or ways, and

an unobstructeddoor-space between the vertical sides of the case and the top and bottom thereof, interchangeable doors engaging said grooves and occupying said space, the said doors being provided with recesses in the" rear, and yielding guides attached to-the case and having pro ections adapted to enga e the said recesses of the doors whereby the atter are temporarily locked in place when moved completely past each other.

1'0. The combination with a ea c having top and bottom undivided grooves orj-ways, doors slidingly mounted in said ways and adapted to move past each other, the doors havin rollers or casters at their bottom rails to fac itate their front andbackward movement in the grooves, the doors, being intercase being entirely unobstructed between the vertical s des as well as between the top and bottom thereof, and means attached to the case and located in the rear of the doors for changeable and the door-space in front of iihe 1 causing them to move forwardly iau-tomatically into the same plane when properly adjusted.

11. The combination with a case having grooves or ways, and doors 'engagin said' grooves and provided with removab e top strips held in place by fastening devices, the case having an facilitate the removal of the strips by giving access to their fastening devices.

opening above the strips'to 12. The combination with a case having undivided grooves or ways, interchangeable doors engaging said ways and adapted to slide past each other, the doors being rein- 5' forced on the front side of their lower groove engaging rails to reduce friction, the doorspace in front of the case being entirely unobstructed between the top and bottom of the case and between the vertical sides thereof,

10 and means attached to the case, and located ARTHUR CURTIS Witnesses:

DENA NELSON, A. J OBnmN. 

